A post in which I think about movies

I woke up today not feeling good about last night. Maybe I'm outgrowing sport sex. Maybe I'm just getting to old for that (until the usual spring rush o' hormones, I ruefully reflect). Whatever the rationale, I was conscious of feeling vaguely disappointed in myself today. I've had to be more conscious of things that make me feel 'less than' instead of 'greater than' as I get older. Maturity? Morality? Here? How odd. And of course completely speculative at this point. Time will tell.

It was a quiet day today. My boss had taken the day off today as well.

After work, I had to go to the grocery store, natch. I have leftover bread from lunch yesterday at home, and I’m going to make it into a tomato casserole like the one they make at the Berryman House in Georgia. I picked up some odds and ends, and birthday cards for Lisa and Cindy. I also finally remembered to buy some chubs to use to wrap up the Blue Willow. I’m determined to do better this week than I did the last time I prepared to go to Granny’s house.

Lisa’s birthday party is this Sunday, but I’m not going to be able to go. Driving from Wilkesboro to Chapin, then being there for the party, driving back to Greenville, and working the next day is just a bit more than I think I can manage at the mo. I’d really like to be there, but I know I’m going to feel terrible the next day if I do it. So hopefully Mom taking the dishes down there for me will make up for part of that. Guilt, guilt, guilt.

Speaking of which I forgot to call new Billy back last night as he had asked. I had also didn’t call Eve today about having dinner with them this week. Eve called me Saturday because they hadn’t seen me in a couple of weeks. There was just no way I was doing that tonight though. By the time I got in from the market, put away the groceries, made supper (I was going to cook the casserole tonight, but by the time I got home, I knew that wasn’t going to happen), and cleaned up the kitchen I was all in. Plus I had to change the sheets again.

I did lie around for a few minutes before I went to bed. I watched part of The Devil Wears Prada. I didn’t like the movie any better than I had the first time. Meryl Streep is brilliant in it, of course, but the point of the mediocre book was how brutal the fashion industry is. The character of Miranda Priestly, in her complete disdain for the rest of the world, mirrored the complete self-absorption of the fashion industry that produces un-wearable, uncomfortable clothes for unreal people. I’m sure that Meryl insisted on a re-write of her character (it would have been a one-note performance had she not), but by humanizing Miranda and giving her motivations for her cruelty, you destroy the message of the book. It becomes a character study rather than a satirical indictment.

Anyway, about that point I had everything done that had to be done tonight, and the FarmVille server locked up - again – so I said the hell with it and went to bed. I’ve been watching Spirited Away to go to sleep the last couple of nights. I understood part of it last night that I hadn’t prior. The invasion of the ‘No-Face’ monster into the bath house had puzzled me before. It seemed arbitrary. Plus the character had repaid kindness (Chihirio’s leaving the door open to let him in out of the rain) with terror. What I got last night was that No-Face only reflects what is around him. He becomes a monster when surrounded by greed. The more selfishness and greed that surround him, the larger and more monstrous he becomes. When Chihiro is more concerned with her friend than with the gold nuggets No-Face offers, he can’t understand that. When she returns the offer of gold and instead offers him something, his inflation and monstrousness is graphically purged. It seems simple, but then I guess I am, because it took me several viewings to finally figure it out. An adept metaphor for people who reflect the ethics which surround them, and an interesting reason for being a stand-up character. Also a metaphor for the de-humanizing effects of greed. Apt.

I ended up staying up too late, so maybe I need to pick another movie to take to bed.